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One truth is the swing of the sentence, the beat and poise, but down deeper it's the integrity of the writer as he matches with the language.
Don Delillo
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The essence of writing lies in the balance of language and the writer's integrity.

Don DeLillo emphasizes that effective writing is not just about the superficial elegance of sentences but is rooted in the deeper integrity of the writer. Genuine writing resonates when the author skillfully aligns their true self with the language they employ, creating a harmonious interplay that captivates readers.

Themes

WritingIntegrityLanguageAuthenticityExpression

In practice

Example use cases

In a writing workshop, when discussing the importance of authenticity in personal narratives.

More from Don Delillo

The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
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For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
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I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
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[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. 
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This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
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